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Topping the list of stocks with abnormal volume in yesterday's trading is (NYSE: PBF), with 6.1x normal volume. In the prior session, PBF traded 8.84 million shares, versus normal volume of approximately 1.46 million. PBF Energy announced that the underwritten secondary offering of 18,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock by funds affiliated with The Blackstone Group and First Reserve Management, L.P. has been priced for total gross proceeds of approximately $540.0 million. The underwriters have offered the shares of Class A common stock at prevailing market prices or otherwise from time to time through the New York Stock Exchange, in the over-the-counter-market, through negotiated transactions or otherwise. The Selling Stockholders will receive all of the proceeds from the Offering.

In the #2 spot, (NYSE: AL) saw 5.6x normal trading volume, with 4.61 million shares trading in the session versus the usual 822,232. Air Lease Corporation announced the delivery of the first of two new 777-300ER widebody aircraft to Air New Zealand. A second new 777-300ER is scheduled for delivery this fall. Both aircraft are from ALC's order book with Boeing.

Looking for abnormal volume stand-outs, we comb through the closing trading data for the Russell 1000 components, to find these stand-outs that traders will be interested to watch during Friday's upcoming session. To compile the list (see below), we first calculate "normal" volume for each stock by computing the average over the trailing three month period, and then we compare that figure against the volume seen during the session.

In the #3 spot, Exelon (NYSE: EXC) saw 5.6x normal trading volume, with 44.41 million shares trading in the session versus the usual 7.90 million. Exelon Corporation announced that it has priced its concurrent public offerings of 50,000,000 shares of its common stock in connection with forward sales agreements and 20,000,000 equity units. Net proceeds of the offerings will be used to finance a portion of the Pepco Holdings Inc. acquisition announced on April 30, 2014, and for general corporate purposes.

Rayonier (NYSE: RYN) ranked #4 on the list, with 4.7x normal volume, based on the approximately 2.97 million shares trading in the last session, versus a calculated normal volume of 637,545. Rayonier chairman, president and CEO, Paul Boynton, was scheduled to provide an update on the planned spin-off of Rayonier's Performance Fibers business, to be known as Rayonier Advanced Materials upon separation on the 11th.